£100m plans for Yorkshire's tallest building given the green light

Code’s £100 million scheme includes three buildings of 12, 17 and 38 storeys, to be located on a site adjacent to the Vita building between Rockingham Street, Wellington Street and Trafalgar Street.

The development will be co-living – a relatively new concept for the UK but common in North America – designed for a mixture of students, post-graduates and younger people looking for fantastic facilities in a location in the centre of everything a city centre offers.

The development will feature a mix of apartments, with the majority being studios but also one- and two-bedroom apartments included. Ten per cent of the total floor space in the development will be allocated for apartments available at an affordable rent and only for non-students.

The current tallest building in Sheffield is City Lofts Tower, which stands at 101 metres while the current tallest in Yorkshire is Bridgewater Place in Leeds, which is 113 metres.

A student scheme – the Olympian Homes development on the site of the former Hume House – is currently under construction in Leeds and will become the tallest building in Yorkshire at 114 metres.

However Code Sheffield will be taller than the Olympian Homes scheme at 116.7 metres.

Commenting on the successful approval, Jamie Lewis of Code said: “We’re delighted to have been given the green light to deliver this hugely ambitious project. We’re excited about Sheffield and its regeneration. The Council is doing a great job in transforming the area around our development site with Heart of the City II and this was a key factor in giving us the confidence to invest at this scale.

“Our development will replace a car repair yard and vacant office building with a keynote development that brings hundreds of people into the area to support local shops, cafes and restaurants. We therefore see our scheme as another addition to the Heart of the City II transformation.”

Councillor Mazher Iqbal, Cabinet Member for Business and Investment at Sheffield City Council said: “I’m pleased this scheme has been approved by the Planning Committee. I know there has been a lot of work done to ensure the quality of such a prominent building is high and I’m particularly happy to see the commitment of Code to affordable homes for rent.

“We’ve always seen Heart of the City II as a scheme that can attract additional investment into the city in the surrounding area and this scheme proves that is happening. It’s great to see new homes being built in the city centre. It’s something we want to see more of, helping us to create a vibrant city centre that can deliver jobs and attract visitors while avoiding having to build in the green belt.”

Work to bring forward the development will commence immediately. Code is aiming to be on site to begin construction this summer